


A Visit from an Ex-Parisian Lover

by heavensends



Category: CP Coulter's Dalton - Fandom, Dalton Academy Series, Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 21:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2887955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heavensends/pseuds/heavensends
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian Smythe shows up at Julian's hospital bedside, looking for adventure and longing for the past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Visit from an Ex-Parisian Lover

“Der?” Julian whispered. “It’s almost four and--”

Julian rested against his tautly-tucked hospital sheets, admiring the sea of flowers surrounding him to the soundtrack of Derek’s escaping snores. The athlete beside him had drifted off yet again during a daily visit and, though Jules enjoyed the silent company, he also knew practice started soon and wouldn’t want his friend to be late. If Julian’s whispers proved ineffective, the clambering foot steps and swing of a door that followed were surely enough to interrupt Der’s murmured zz’s.

“Who’s there?”

Enter a suave brunette sporting a twisted pout and an attractive, ironed striped shirt.

“Julian Larson! I’m hurt--so hurt--you didn’t send for me sooner. You know, a little visit from me could have sped up your recovery. Gotten you out of this mess a little sooner.” The boy’s smirk transformed into an affectionate smile, returned with little effort by the patient in bed.

“Seb? What are you doing here? I didn’t send for you--”

“Details, details.” Sebastian sauntered in and placed himself next to Jules, his back against the bed frame. “Happy to see me?”

He then paused and glared at the guy stretching on the visitors’ chair beside them. “And, who are you?”

“Best friend,” Derek shrugged. “And you?”

“I’m his ex-Parisian luv-” A beat. “I’m a friend. Sebastian Smythe. From Paris.”

Without attaining the full recap of exactly how Julian acquainted this posh teen with a sly smile, Sebastian, Derek decided to slip off to practice.  “I’ll be by later, text me if the doctors say anything interesting,” he paused, “even if it’s bad, okay?”  

“Yeah, yeah.  Now you shoo off to your sporty shenanigans, Der.  Wouldn’t want your coveted position to be taken by an overeager freshmen, even if you guys don’t have a chance in Hell of making it passed the second round of the playoffs, what with your sorry excuse for defensive strategy and all.”  Sebastian, sitting comfortably beside him, gave a chuckle.

“Jesus, J, are they giving you morphine or do you always hold this much candor with your friends in Ohio?”  

“Both,” Julian and Derek said at once.  Derek eyed the two brunettes remaining in the room one last time before exiting and rushing to the parking lot.  For weeks a large daily sleugh of visitors came to see Julian in his remarkably recovered state, but as time passed traffic slowed down considerably.  Now usually Derek was the only one to swing by.  Especially with Logan away again, he thought this new visitor would be good for his friend.

“So, I’ll ask again.  Happy to see me?” Sebastian purred into Julian’s ear, too close for comfort.

Julian smiled his film star teeth, scooting over on the bed and looking the striped boy next t him the eye.  “Very happy.”  It sounded casual and sincere, but so did everything coming from an award winning actor.  

Sebastian just laughed.  “So, when can you leave this place?  It seriously reeks of disinfectant.  And, while we’re on the subject of you escaping here, when can you get on a plane again?  Because tourist season is over in Paris and we have a new art exhibit out that you would really enjoy, I think.”  

Batting his eyes apologetically, Julian replied to his friend with an evenly rehearsed tone.  “Don’t hold your breathe because I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.  My heart might stop again, they told me.  They hook all these machines up to monitor me when I’m walking, even just to the toilet.  I’ll be lucky if I can attend next year’s Oscars.  Not that I’ll even be nominated-”

“Okay, so, no Paris.  Not right now.”  Sebastian patted his Julian’s shoulder cautiously.  In his eyes, a genuine concern flashed in between the usual glares of sass and affection.  “But you must be getting bored here, I mean come on.  You’re Julian Larson.  I know you like adventure, you and me both.”

“What am I supposed to do here, Sebastian?  Runaway with you?”

“There’s a macaron place two miles from here, I google mapped it.  I could take you for an hour, we’ll convince the nurse.  You’re so drugged up your body won’t be able to feel the difference between sitting in the plush seats of my hot-ass jaguar slash the cafe lounge and this bed...it’ll be fine.  It’ll be fun.”

“Really, Seb?   Macarons?  If you really wanted to be helpful, you’d just bring them to me.”

“Not as fun.”

“If I agree to go with you, literally risking my life, putting my recovery and career on the line, then I want to know something from you.”

“Okay, what do you want to know?”

“Why’d you come here, Sebastian?”  Julian looked at him with a split second of sadness, rubbing his hand through his hair.

“I missed you.  I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

“And that’s the whole truth?”  Julian grabbed his sunglasses and placed them upon his head.

“Yes.  That’s the whole truth.”

“And Paris?  How we left things?”  The air of casualness that surrounded this topic left both boys feeling uncomfortable.  The weight of Paris lay heavily on their chests, but waffed away as if it were feather dust.

“What about it?  We’re friends, now.  It’s normal for friends to visit friends.”

\--

And so, in a cafe about two miles from Julian’s hospital, the two friends shared a macaroon.  Or rather, they shared an assortment of them.  Pistachio, lemon, chocolate, mocha, raspberry..each flavor tasted of a memory stashed away.

“Tell me what’s been up with you,” Julian pleaded.

“Come on, it’s not so interesting.  It’s all in what I texted you, anyway.”

“We texted a few sentences about food, weather, I don’t know what you mean.”

“Come on, you know.”

Julian blinked.  He felt a spark of irritation twinge at his heart.  “Dude, I am not a mind reader” he said.  “And ‘ate at the cafe by the river today’ really didn’t give me much to go on.  Tell me what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been and don’t be cryptic about it.”

Julian had been very ill, cut away from everyone, forced to deal with the very real and scary psychological effects of the night that hurt him, killed a teacher, and traumatized his friends to a point of no return.  The only way through was to move forward from where they were and go somewhere else, to not try and not long for the past.  His psychologist told him so, and he knew it to be true.  

Knowing this, Sebastian swallowed.   He explained, “Okay, well, honestly? I’ve been working a small investment firm as an intern.  Out of Switzerland.  My father’s coworker, actually, helped make it all happen.  I know what you’re thinking -”

“I don’t think you do...”

“No I know exactly what you’re going to say-”

“Stop saying that, please, I’m honestly thinking that that sounds really nice.”

“You don’t think I shouldn’t be catering to parental expectations?”

“You’re only as free as you allow yourself to be, Seb.  And goodness knows if you trail too far from making your family proud you’d really be putting up fences to put yourself in a cage rather than escaping one.”

“And what about you?  How do you find freedom?”

“Given everything?”

“Yeah, given everything.  Honestly, it’s okay to tell me.”

“I could be dead, so maybe it’s like, I wake up everyday and start it thinking at least I can wake up, like, in my own body.  I am me and you are you, you know?  Oh god, it sounds like I’m high.   I don’t mean to sound-”

“No it’s okay.  I think, I think I get what you're saying.  Look, we should probably get back before they send out an amber alert for you.”

“The nurse gave me til 6pm. I promised her seven tickets to my next premiere,” Julian smiled.  “But I guess that wasn’t the only reason she let me go, she might just pity me.   She knows as well as I know that another premiere won’t happen for quite a while.  If.. you know…at all.”

“I don’t know, J.  You don’t either.  We can’t-”

“I know, I know.  I’m sorry.”

“Babe, we really have to get out of here.”

Baahling.  A text popped up on Julian’s phone.

_I just stopped by the hospital.   Nurse Karen said you’ve been signed out to go out?   Don’t do anything stupid.  Have fun.  Love, D._

Julian smirked at the sign off, but that’s Derek for you: the kind of friend who wants you to know that he’s a brother to you 24/7 and nothing will change that.

“Yeah let’s go, let’s go.”

Baahling _._ The next text came from Logan, his not so brother-like-friend who was currently on the campaign trail with his father in Tennessee.

 _Jules, please give me a call._ _I miss you.  Just...please._

So just when Julian stepped in Sebastian’s sports car, he started to cry.


End file.
